What does a young fashion star look for when buying a home? For handbag designer Hayden Lasher, there’s a close parallel between her aesthetic and her approach to real estate. “When you’re investing in anything—a sofa, pillow, bag, or shoes—it should be something that outlasts trends and fads,” says Lasher, whose new line of customizable evening bags launches this fall.
So when she and her husband, David McGuiness, found a two-bedroom, two-bath triplex in New York’s tony Beekman Place neighborhood, it had all the makings of an investment piece: Located in a traditional townhouse, the apartment features high ceilings, stately windows, an antique fireplace, and intricate wainscoting and molding. “We first fell in love with the neighborhood,” Lasher points out, noting the apartment’s location on a quiet cul-de-sac, a term rarely used in Manhattan’s real-estate market. “But the character of the home drew us in from the minute we stepped inside.” The best part? The previous owner had embarked on a renovation project of his own, and the interiors were updated and pristine.
To make the space her own, Lasher, a Texas native and the great-grandniece of Henri Bendel, looked to family friend and designer Jerry Jeanmard, of Houston-based Wells Design, to give the classic architecture a few modern touches and a more youthful, contemporary feel. “It’s the kind of dramatic, glamorously detailed vertical space that everyone always imagines chic New Yorkers live in,” Jeanmard says. “We just polished the apple, keeping the basic palette while making it feel fresher.” Designing around the quirky stacked floor plan, they chose a serene color scheme of grays, blues, and greens, and layered in rich textures and unexpected patterns—think leopard-print carpeting—to bring depth to the space. Throughout the apartment, a significant amount of the redesign time was allotted to adding built-in storage. “As a shoe addict and handbag designer, adequate closet space was a must!” Lasher says.
Her feminine aesthetic finds its counterpoint in the masculine space that dominates the apartment’s lower level, a coincidental bonus that satisfied her husband’s most challenging real-estate requirement. “When we saw the apartment advertised, there was a picture of a door with an engraved brass plate that read ‘Man Room,’” says Lasher, “and we took it as a sign.” In stark contrast to Lasher’s dainty, tied-with-a-bow handbags, McGuiness’s space features a brawny palette with muscular furnishings—a riveted sofa, a tufted leather ottoman, brass and dark-wood accents—that speak to the traditional English gentlemen’s club frequented by the upper crust in the 19th century. In the end, the room’s warmth provides “a cozy place that we really enjoy,” Lasher notes, “especially during the winter.” No doubt it will be a perfect place to hunker down after fall’s fashionable bustle subsides.
